Genome Property Definition Page

Accession

GenProp0156

Name

cyanophycin-like storage polymers

Type

SYSTEM

Description

Cyanophycin is a characteristically Cyanobacterial storage polymer for nitrogen, carbon, and energy. It is made by cyanophycin synthetase and degraded by cyanophycinase. Cyanophycinase is also found in an extracellular form by some species that can utilize exogenous cyanophycin. The polymer has a backbone of L-aspartic acid residues (Asp), with the side chain COOH linked to the NH2 of arginine (Arg) residues. The native cyanobacterial form is insoluble, while heterogenously expressed cyanophycin synthetases in E. coli may produce a soluble form with some level of Lys substituting for Arg. This polymer is analogous to polyhydroxyalkanoic acid biosynthesis systems with which it sometimes co-occurs.